Configuration Of Urban Space Research Articles

The Geography of Inequality: Socio-Spatial Segregation and Climate Vulnerability in Brazilian Urban Peripheries

This article elaborates on the relationship between socio-spatial segregation and climate vulnerability in urban peripheries, pointing out how the structural inequalities of cities are further deepened by climate change processes. The paper critically engages with the core question: How does urban planning, and its public policies fall short of protecting marginalized populations while prioritizing more central and valued areas? This research rests on a critical review of literature, referring to the theories of Henri Lefebvre, David Harvey, Flavio Villaça, Roberto Lobato Corrêa, Milton Santos, and Mike Davis. Their theories on the unequal production of urban space and the exclusion of poor populations are crucial for understanding data on the effects of climate change on Brazilian urban peripheries. The adopted methodology explores intersections between spatial segregation and climatic vulnerability, highlighting how the neoliberal model of urbanization deepens the exposure of peripheries to environmental risks. The research establishes the urgency of rethinking urban policies as the intensity of extreme weather events increases, suggesting fair solutions to promote climate justice. The study's findings indicate that the current configuration of urban space not only intensifies the marginalization of peripheries but also amplifies their vulnerability to climate crises. This underscores the need for urban planning that fairly redistributes investments and resources, prioritizing the most vulnerable areas and promoting socio-spatial inclusion.

Estado, ilegalidade e a produção do espaço de Culiacán, Sinaloa, México

Abstract This article aims to analyze the configuration of urban space in the city of Culiacán, state of Sinaloa, Mexico, characterized by neoliberal processes of urban production, the private governance model, and an illegal economy. Based on interviews, newspapers articles, searches in local public archives, and a bibliographic review, it is shown that the urban-spatial evolution of Culiacán is subordinated to the introduction of illegal capital into the local and regional economic dynamics, to the urbanization demands of a global city model, and to the strategies and tools generated by criminal governance. This has produced spaces that allow us to see the hybridization of legal and illegal forms based on which the city has been constituted and reproduced.

Shaping the healthy subject in gentrified spaces: Two case studies in Barcelona (Spain)

Several studies have analysed the impact of gentrification on health. However, a more in-depth examination of the constitutive role of health discourses in shaping spaces is required. This article explores the links between the gentrification process and the subjectification of healthy subjects through a critical discourse analysis of 35 walking interviews and a visual semiotic analysis of 140 shopfronts. Health is put forth as a super value to justify market interference in the configuration of urban space and class privilege based on the health products and healthy practices that have undergone a process of elitisation.

Generating citywide street cross-sections using aerial LiDAR and detailed street plan

Precise information on spatial configurations of urban spaces, such as streets, is essential for investigating complex interrelationships between the quality of life, livability, and mobility. Street cross-sections can be central for such research as they depict the allocation of urban space by detailing the streetscape's layout and dimensions, including driveways, sidewalks, bikepaths, median strips, trees, adjoining buildings and open spaces, and shadows. However, creating an accurate description of the real world as a three-dimensional representation and translation into cross-sections is challenging due to the requirement of multiple data sources, such as road layouts with widths, height information, and, optionally, high-resolution aerial imagery. Without such datasets, the cross-section drawings are limited to manual measurements, which are difficult to extend to a city scale. This study aims to develop a method to automatically generate street cross-sections for the entire city of Berlin based on an aerial Lidar dataset and a city street plan. The study also includes shadows as a part of the sections and utilizes the Lidar dataset to generate solar radiation maps. Approximately 0.5 million cross-sections are generated with detailed information regarding the width and placement of the street elements. The details of the cross-sections are further processed to find generic street compositions, understand the influence of shadows on walkways and bikepaths, and calculate the enclosure.

The influence of urban space in dramatic conflicts: transnationality in Mexican fiction films

Through this article we will analyze a corpus of Mexican fiction films of its classic-industrial period, produced by Pedro and Guillermo Calderón, Palabras de mujer (José Díaz Morales, 1946) and Maternidad imposible (Emilio Gómez Muriel, 1955), that have as a common nexus the interurban transfers, based on the migration phenomenon, the exploitation of a transnational cast and the influences of differentiated urban spaces in the narrative conflicts. Those characteristics will be delineated studying the configuration of urban spaces represented on them, its interference in the dramatic structure of these films and the identity translations presented consequently. The topic of migration and its entailments with the plots of these titles will allow us to elucidate the role awarded to the capital cities as spaces of cultural exchange, as also as essential elements for the achievement of the purposes of their characters, promoting a (des)centralizing vision of those types of territories.

Analysis method of urban formation in relation to buildings of historical value: Case Study in Crissiumal/RS

The formation process of cities happens due to the migratory movements that contributed to the colonization of Brazil, and is also responsible for leaving an architectural heritage of great historical and cultural importance for the future of humanity. The objective of this review is to analyze the urban insertion of the first historical and culturally valued buildings in the city of Crissiumal, located in the state of Rio Grande do Sul (Brazil), in order to understand how they influenced the urban formation. For this, initially, the first buildings built in the city were identified, and then their insertion and their influences in relation to the formation of the urban fabric were analyzed. The research presents an analysis of maps in relation to the macro parceling, through the relationship between full and empty spaces, based on the proposal of the Inventory of Configurations of Urban Spaces - INCEU. Through research and analysis carried out from the maps created, it was possible to perceive that the buildings implanted in the immediate surroundings of Praça 25 de Julho had an influence on the urbanization and formation of the city. These buildings housed important places for society, such as City Hall, Church, Schools and Commerce. In this way, most of the new homes were built close to these places, and the city expanded from this environment.

Typology of Manggarai slum area: the strategy of resilient city to fencing pandemic

Abstract The post-pandemic COVID-19 demands an increasingly massive planning transformation in adopting spatial principles. It is often found the configuration of urban space is often the driver of the distribution level of the number of cases. Several spatial variables, such as the irregularity of the building, building density, and the technical requirements of the building, are closely related to the assessment of the indicators of slum settlements. Manggarai Slum Area is one of the slum clusters that have the potential to become the epicentrum of COVID-19 in Jakarta. So, it is necessary to have a strategy for structuring slum areas without compromising the rules of adaptation to the pandemic. The phase is begins by classifying the typology of the level of slums. Followed by a SWOT analysis for identifying general strategic development and determining the strategy for each typology. Generally, residential areas are classified as priority 1 category A1 and A3 (heavy slums), only differing from the legality of the land. Buildings, facilities, utilities, and legal needs to be prioritized in this area. While in the priority 3 category C3 (low slum) classification in the form of a military housing area. The right strategy is the fulfillment of basic infrastructure

MODELING OF POLYVALENT SPACES WITH CYCLIC CHANGES OF FUNCTIONS

Goal. Determination of the peculiarities of the use of scenario methods in the formation of polyvalent public spaces with the aim of determining their volume-planning parameters and projecting transformations during the year, as well as on the scale of weeks and individual significant days. The research methodology is based on the implementation of scenario methods that allow to investigate the functional purpose of a multivalent public space, taking into account the cyclical alternation of traditional events and the programmed combination of functions tied to the surrounding enterprises. A number of polyvalent public spaces (PPS) in Ukraine and abroad have been studied. Research results: spatial models of the organization of urban space were developed, and functions unfolding throughout the year were tied to cyclic schedules. The developed recommendations provide for the creation of stations within the framework of the surrounding buildings, on the basis of which the thematic transformations and the design of the multivalent space are deployed. The proposed models will allow, taking into account the cyclical analysis of events in the polyvalent space, to optimize its size and functional zoning for each specific period of the year and to forecast its use on a weekly basis, taking into account the various interests of the community. The scientific novelty of the study is based on the creation of a universal methodology for the design of PVPs, which combines scenarios of their use, spatial planning, evaluation of models with dominant mono- and poly-functional use, creation of transitional models. Practical significance. The economic effect of the PPP is based on the search for effective dimensions and configuration of urban spaces. The social effect consists in planning and designing the saturation of these spaces with functions inherent in urban centers, supporting local traditions, the development of social contacts of different age groups.

Lifestyles and cities of the future – Rome and Montreal: comparing two realities

This article presents the results of an international research project carried out in Italy and Canada, conducted by architects, landscape architects, sociologists and medical doctors. The study originated in the conviction that health and well-being are crucial objectives integrated within the notion of a sustainable city. For this reason, the configuration of urban space plays a decisive role in defining lifestyles and can contribute to improving the welfare of citizens. Many of today’s diseases are caused by a sedentary lifestyle; it is essential, therefore, to centre prevention on the promotion of physical well-being encouraging an active lifestyle, which can be achieved by changing the urban structure. With the aim of bringing about sustainable and healthy lifestyles, streets are in vogue. Streets are meeting and experimental places, theatres of everyday life and settings for cultural events. They provide crucial urban space for people and, in the context of urban studies, offer intellectual research nourishment to reflect on this fundamental element of the structure of the city. The research project presented here is aimed at encouraging active lifestyles, walkability and the use of public transport by facilitating accessibility to four sites in Rome and Montreal, and by exploring the potential leveraging of existing infrastructures and services. The research-based design proposals start with the idea of redeveloping the system of public spaces, beginning with the increase of bicycle and pedestrian routes in relation to schools, commerce, sports facilities and archaeological heritage. The goal is to build feasible, safe, recognisable and attractive routes and well-equipped public spaces in order to discourage the use of private vehicles, especially for short trips. The projects presented here are based on a systemic vision and make use of existing, but often abandoned or undervalued, spaces and resources.

Collective actions for reconfiguration of urban space Biały Bór, Poland

Biały Bór is located in the former German territories that came to Poland after the Second World War. The almost complete replacement of the indigenous German and Jewish populations, initially by Polish and soon Ukrainian communities, was the result of the displacement of state borders by the eviction and relocation of millions of people. To do this, the authorities used certain strategies, which brought different approaches and constraints to local communities and urban spaces. The article considers the differences between the declared principles and the actual actions of the authorities in the context of “small stories” of all actors (national communities), as well as the tactics of indirect resistance of the local community to government pressure. Due to the remoteness of the place from the state center and due to its unanimity, the local community becomes the driving force of the spatial development of the city. And since the city is multicultural, the development of public spaces is influenced by the competitiveness (not confrontation) of two local communities. Therefore, the creation of public spaces is considered in the context of the rights of different groups to the city. This paper argues the conditions under which it is the collective actions of local communities that determine the change in the configuration of urban space.

Understanding the Impact of Walkability, Population Density, and Population Size on COVID-19 Spread: A Pilot Study of the Early Contagion in the United States.

The novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic is an unprecedented global event that has been challenging governments, health systems, and communities worldwide. Available data from the first months indicated varying patterns of the spread of COVID-19 within American cities, when the spread was faster in high-density and walkable cities such as New York than in low-density and car-oriented cities such as Los Angeles. Subsequent containment efforts, underlying population characteristics, variants, and other factors likely affected the spread significantly. However, this work investigates the hypothesis that urban configuration and associated spatial use patterns directly impact how the disease spreads and infects a population. It follows work that has shown how the spatial configuration of urban spaces impacts the social behavior of people moving through those spaces. It addresses the first 60 days of contagion (before containment measures were widely adopted and had time to affect spread) in 93 urban counties in the United States, considering population size, population density, walkability, here evaluated through walkscore, an indicator that measures the density of amenities, and, therefore, opportunities for population mixing, and the number of confirmed cases and deaths. Our findings indicate correlations between walkability, population density, and COVID-19 spreading patterns but no clear correlation between population size and the number of cases or deaths per 100 k habitants. Although virus spread beyond these initial cases may provide additional data for analysis, this study is an initial step in understanding the relationship between COVID-19 and urban configuration.

Mobility and Urban Centralities: An Analysis Based on the Motorized Flows Attraction in Belo Horizonte/State of Minas Gerais/Brazil

The issues encompassing planning and management of the urban space are directly related to the transport system, of which the flow plays a central role. Therefore, an interdependence among urban tissue, space structuring, and demand for mobility are taken into account. The objective of this work, using the data taken from the last two Origin and Destination surveys (2002 and 2012), is to assess the possible reduced power of attraction of the Central Area of Belo Horizonte by means of the motorized flows as a result of the process of induction of power of attraction of new urban centralities through planning and management policies. The results presented in this work generally indicate that the spatial structure of Belo Horizonte has remained concentrated in the Central Area, though new flows seem to converge to the consolidation of new municipal centralities. Even if additional care in the interpretation of results is necessary due to the limited time cuts and the database used, besides the specific features of Belo Horizonte, the empirical evidence translated in the proposed indicators allow a more accurate reflection on the recent urban space configuration, with the connections established through the space mobility of the population.

Valuing ecosystem services of urban forests and open spaces: application of the SEEA framework in Australia*

Around two‐thirds of the global population will live in cities by 2050 requiring large urban infrastructure development. Decision‐makers and planners usually rely on standard economic accounting methods for urban planning and investments on infrastructure assets. However, standard methods fail to account for the ecosystem services benefits that living infrastructure (e.g. urban forests, open spaces) provides to city dwellers. This could generate socially inefficient configurations of urban spaces and compromise the achievement of long‐term urban sustainability targets. In this analysis, we applied a stochastic whole‐of‐life benefit–cost analysis following the System of Environmental‐Economic Accounting (SEEA) framework to compare alternative long‐term management strategies for living infrastructure in Canberra, Australia. Spatially explicit data, i‐Tree Eco and benefit transfer methods were used to estimate the stocks and flows ecosystem services benefits of urban forests and irrigated open spaces from 2018 to 2070. Our analysis suggests that a ’30 per cent canopy cover expansion’ scenario has the highest benefit–cost ratio, while the business as usual scenario, where a net loss of 400 trees is expected per year, offers the lowest benefit–cost ratio. Scenarios of expanding versus not expanding irrigated open spaces in the future both result in a benefit–cost ratio of approximately two.

The Role of Urban Space Configuration in Maintaining Social Inclusion: A Comparison of Four Types of Neighborhoods in Greater Cairo Region-Egypt

Since the mid-twentieth century, the process of modernization caused an adaptation of westernized prototypes of residential neighborhoods in Greater Cairo Region. This evolution caused a relevant evolution of various prototypes of urban spaces, an evolution from traditional neighborhoods where street works as public space to new planned neighborhoods that concern quantitative provision of urban spaces as internal gardens inside superblock. The evolution was attractive for residents who escaped crowded traditional neighborhoods and claimed quantitative provision of urban spaces with well-designed landscape to enjoy better living conditions. Egyptian National Organization for Urban Harmony developed urban space design guidelines, to ensure quantitative and accessibility criteria. However, observation of urban spaces in new cities revealed failure to host residents and probably have negative impacts on social inclusion, cohesion, and participation. One reason behind that failure is the lack of empirical knowledge of expected impacts of design guidelines on social behavior. This research examines social sustainability of urban space configuration in four prototypes of neighborhoods, it also questions how socially sustainable are NOUH2010 design guidelines. The research depends on ethnographic observation and questionnaire survey that were conducted in selected neighborhoods. The paper reports, based on empirical findings, that modern urban spaces with quantitative provision of urban-spaces, hierarchical distribution, merged and central location, good accessibility and well-designed landscape are short sighted to achieve urban social sustainability; rather qualitative mixed use is most influential factor to encourage social inclusion, interaction and participation as by-product of movement and as subsidiary to other attractive activities.

The Effect of Centrality Values in Urban Gentrification Development: A Case Study of Erbil City

Despite Erbil's citadel significant role in the urban space configuration, it suffers from many functional and accessibility problems, there is rapture in the connectivity, accessibility and visual consistency between the city precinct and the development in the peripheral area, the connectivity of the city could be increased through enhancing centrality of the urban fabric through touristic gentrification. The paper aims to find a way to increase the connectivity between the citadel and its precinct through the touristic gentrification approach. The research adopted the Urban Network Analysis (UNA) technique as a primary methodology for the analysis with its centrality principles. The methodology worked on the urban gentrification process as a way to fill the weak link to increase urban connectivity. The paper found that some areas with high connectivity values in terms of place centrality do not have an equal transformation in terms of land use and importance which accordingly, proposed to be gentrified locations.

Periurban housing: the genesis of a new urban identity: Case of two suburbs of Sfax city in Tunisia

The spontaneous periurban, peripheral, non-communal or anarchic spontaneous habitat in Tunisia is a recent phenomenon that began as early as independence and has continued to increase to the present day. This type of habitat is a new configuration of urban space in the sense that it expresses a set of signs and symbols that refers to a specific culture and a certain relationship that is established between social actors and their space.
 In this context, the question could be asked: why is this type of habitat perceived as peripheral, illegal and marginalized? Couldn't it be the focus of a sensual daily life?
 The space of these outlying neighbourhoods is the place of interaction through which each inhabitant writes his scenario through his actions, values and daily practices to forge an urban identity both individual and collective. This is what we have seen from fieldwork in two suburbs of the city of Sfax: Ben Saida and Erryadh district where poverty and marginality were experienced as a creative experience.
 The interactionism and sociology of everyday life thus constitute our theoretical framework through which we will use observation and audiovisual recording as investigative techniques to take a close look at the spontaneous behaviours of social actors and to deeply analyze their daily conversations of the populations of the outlying districts of Sfax.
 The interactionism and sociology of everyday life thus constitute our theoretical framework through which we will use observation and audiovisual recording as investigative techniques to take a close look at the spontaneous behaviours of social actors and to deeply analyze their daily conversations of the populations of the outlying districts of Sfax.
 We are trying to go beyond the classic theories that the State/Society relationship could only be a vertical relationship, that is, a determinant/determined report loaded with violence that can only be revealed from the representations of these populations towards the State in the form of attitudes and opinions because the decisions that the State makes for the benefit of the populations push them to react by opposing for the We are thus trying to go beyond the classic theories that the State/Society relationship could only be a vertical relationship, that is, a determinant/determined report loaded with violence that can only be revealed from the representations of these populations towards the state in the form of attitudes and opinions because the decisions that the State takes for the benefit of the populations push them to react by opposing to assert, on the other hand, their attachments to the peripheral space-neighbourhood itself if it was stigmatized and excluded by state institutions. The daily experience is therefore rich in meaning and symbols and it deserves a long time to make it the raw material of our sociological analysis.

USER PATTERNS: OUTDOOR SPACE AND OUTDOOR ACTIVITIES

The understanding of the relationship between outdoor activities and outdoor urban spaces is a complex issue, comprising a mutual study between urban space configuration and human behaviors aspect. Jan Gehl and Birgitte Svarre 1987 confirmed that when the outdoor areas are of high quality, the outdoor activity take place with the same frequency, and they tend to take a longer time. From this point, this paper presents an investigation method of the quality of outdoor urban space basing on the investigation of user pattern. El-Houria plaza in Biskra city, Algeria was chosen as case study. Behavioral mapping and questionnaire surveys were applied, for data collection and analysis on March, where the mean daily maximum temperature in the city is 24°C. The findings from this study show that there is a segregation in the continuity of outdoor activities during the day, due to the poor quality of plaza, as well as this confirmed that the continuity of outdoor activities in space depends on the quality of outdoor urban space. This investigation method can be used it and applied to analysis user pattern and examine the quality of outdoor urban space to lead and prompt to a successful design.

Sob a ordem do progresso

O presente artigo tem o intuito de compreender a introdução das teorias antropológicas na cidade do Salvador, em específico, a contribuição do Dr. Nina Rodrigues para a construção do imaginário social entre as décadas finais do século XIX e o início do século XX. Período marcado por mudanças na estrutura social e pela ascensão da classe médica, que sob influência dos vislumbres ideários de progresso alterariam a configuração dos espaços urbanos e consequentemente o cotidiano da população local.

Urban space and the politics of socially engaged art

This paper interrogates the political potential of socially engaged art within an urban setting. Grounded in Lefebvrian and neo-Marxist critical urban theory, this political potential is examined according to three analytics that mark the definition of ‘politics’ in this context: the (re)configuration of urban space, the (re)framing of a particular sphere of experience and the (re)thinking of what is taken-for-granted. By bringing together literatures from a range of academic domains, these analytics are used to examine 1) how socially engaged art may expand our understanding of the link between the material environment and the production of urban imaginaries and meanings, and 2) how socially engaged art can open up productive ways of thinking about and engaging with urban space.

The dichotomy of society and urban space configuration in producing the semiotic structure of the modernism urban fabric

AbstractUrban space organization associates with specific characteristics in the transformation of society’s behavior and views; it is composed of principles of dichotomy that work as a system of signs to transfer meaning with conventional interpretation. The urban fabric as a context is full of signifiers that tend to convey a meaning implicitly carved in its space organization system. Therefore, it is not just a simple physical configuration. Instead, it is a translation of human experiences with the different synchronic architectural characteristics that needs a critical examination to segregate discrete layers of structural elements. The association is so prevailing that each portion has a significant role in creating a combination of mental prototypes of interpretation between the different factors that give the urban space its final form. The study aims to find the internal signs system within urban space organization that is a combination of signs that represents the aesthetic values of space. The study aimed to explore implicit space organization to make out what is internally powerful to work as aesthetic signs of urban space organization. We conclude that there is a difference as a result of intervening new concepts in the urban space organization without taking in account the existing sign system. This difference could be a source of misunderstanding and confusion in the space organization system and needs understanding and restructuring through the development of procedures.